Tag: Roscosmos

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — The Government of the Russian Federation approved the regulation to create and maintain the Earth’s remote sensing federal database. The regulation defines the contents and ways of data transmission, as well as the time period of sending the data to the database.

The passing of these Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation creates all the necessary conditions to maintain the federal Earth’s remote sensing database and data provision to the clients.

Workers work on a concrete foundation at Vostochny Cosmodrome. (Credit: Roscosmos)

TSIOLKOVSKY, Russia (Roscomos PR) — The second phase of construction is at full speed at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The Kazan industrial and construction association are carrying out the foundation armament of structures placed at the Angara carrier rockets family launching complex.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gets a briefing on the progress of Vostochny Cosmodrome in September 2019. (Credit: Roscosmos)

TSIOLKOVSKY, Russia (Roscomos PR) — The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin visited Amur Oblast and held a meeting to discuss the matters of the Vostochny Cosmodrome infrastructure development, as well as on perspective rocket complexes.

Right before the meeting, the President visited the Cosmodrome itself to inspect the objects and get acquainted with the status of the Angara space rocket launch complex construction.

MOSCOW (CNES) — On the occasion of the MAKS international air show in Moscow, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall met Dimitry Rogozin, Director General of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, Maxim Yakovenko, Head of Roshydromet, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, and Kirill Sypalo, Director General of TsAGI, the Zhukovsky Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute.

In 2018,
CNES and Roscosmos signed a framework agreement on space science to
promote new space projects and extend their cooperation to a broad range
of fields including space biology, solar research with the Russian
Interhelioprobe project, the use of French robotics and navigation
expertise for Russia’s lunar exploration programme, planetology,
universe science and climate monitoring.

A Rokot booster placed a Russian military satellite into orbit on Friday on its last mission for the Russian Ministry of Defence.

The booster lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia and successfully placed the Geo-IK-2 No.13 military mapping satellite into orbit.

“The Rokot rocket’s launch was the last one under the Defense Ministry’s program. Another one is due for Roscosmos. The rocket’s operation is over because there are plans for using an advanced type of this vehicle,” Major-General Nikolai Nestechuk told Tass.

Nestechuk did not specify what advanced booster will be used in Rokot’s place.

Rokots are an adaptation of retired SS-19 Stiletto intercontinental ballistic missiles. The booster has launched 33 times with 30 successes, two failures and one partial failure since 1990.

Rokot was formerly marketed as a commercial launcher by Eurockot Launch Services, a joint venture of Russia’s Khrunichev and ArianeGroup. However, that program ended as Russia decided to phase out the booster.

The Eurockot website says the company’s activities are “under redefinition. We will start accepting launch requests in the near future.”

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On August 27, 2019, the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft docked to the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. The crew is now preparing to open the hatches.

The approach was under control of the Mission Control Center specialists and Roscosmos cosmonauts. The crew is now preparing to open the hatches. The Soyuz MS-14 ship delivered about 670 kg of dry cargo to the ISS, including scientific and medical equipment, life support system components, as well as containers with food supplies, medication and personal hygiene items for the crewmembers.

The cargo delivered includes equipment for the Biofilm, Microvir, Magnetic 3D-bioprinter, UV-atmosphere, Cascade, as well as Tester experiments, during which the Skybot F-850 humanoid robot system will be tested.

To recap, the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-14 was launched on August 22, 2019. The launch was unpiloted and became the test flight for the carrier rocket, as previously it had launched into orbit only cargo ships and automatic spacecraft.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — The Soyuz MS-14 is the first piloted spacecraft, which was launched using the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket. In order to certify the system and ensure the safety of cosmonauts the launch on August, 22 was unpiloted and was successful without any issues. This provides an opportunity to use this space complex for the crewed missions.

However, during the docking of the ship a fault occurred in the ISS equipment responsible for the safe approach and airlocking. Therefore the Mission Control Center decided to withdraw the ship to a safe distance to ensure the safety of the crew. The RSC Energia specialists offered the State Commission the following Soyuz MS-14 redocking variant:

On August, 26 Alexander Skvortsov crew will manually redock the Soyuz
MS-13 piloted ship from the Zvezda module to the Small Research
Module-2, where the Soyuz MS-14 was meant to dock.

On August, 27 the second automatic docking attempt will take place, with the Soyuz MS-14 docking to the Zvezda module.

Presently the Soyuz MS-14 is in normal spin in the Sun awaiting the
redocking. Tomorrow Alexander Skvortsov will take an additional training
according to the normal procedure using the onboard simulator to redock
the Soyuz MS-13. The situation is complicated, however is under control.

Video Caption: Roscosmos Space Corporation launches Soyuz missile to the International Space Station piloted for the first time in history by the humanoid robot Skybot F-850. F.E.D.O.R. chooses The Rockets track “Electric Delight” for his journey – on this official video.

The launch of the carrier rocket and injection of the satellite into
orbit using the Briz-M booster went as planned. The spacecraft was taken
under control by the Titov Main Test and Space Systems Control Centre
of the Russian Space Forces.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — On July 31, 2019, at 15:29 UTC the Progress MS-12 cargo vehicle successfully docked to the Pirs docking module of the International Space Station.

The total flight time from the start to the docking was 3 hours 19 minutes, making the spacecraft the fastest in the history of the flights to the ISS. The previous record was set by the previous Progress spacecraft, which got to the ISS in 3 hours 21 minutes.

Earlier today at 12:10 UTC the cargo vehicle lifted off as planned from the launching pad No. 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The autonomous flight was controlled by the Main Operative Group of the Russian segment of the ISS at the Korolyov-based Mission Control Center. Roscosmos cosmonauts ISS crew commander Alexey Ovchinin and flight engineer Alexander Skvortsov controlled the berthing process from ISS board.

The Progress MS-12 cargo vehicle delivered to the ISS 1.2 tons of dry cargo, over 1 ton of propellant in the refueling tanks, 420 kilograms of water in the Rodnik system tanks, as well as 50 kilograms of compressed gas in the tanks.

The cargo section also included scientific equipment, life support system components, as well as containers with food supplies, clothing, medication and personal hygiene items for the crew members.

The two-orbit approach scheme was developed by Energiya corporation
specialists (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) and has already been
used twice to launch cargo spacecraft: Progress MS-09 in July 2018 and
Progress MS-11 in April 2019.

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 60 crew members Drew Morgan of NASA, Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) pose for pictures July 5, 2019, in front of their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft during prelaunch preparations. They will launch July 20, 2019 from Baikonur for their mission on the International Space Station. (Credits: Roscosmos/Andrey Shelepin)

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (NASA PR) — A multinational crew of space travelers, including NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday, July 20 – the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic landing on the Moon. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the crew’s launch and arrival.

Expedition 60 crewmembers NASA’s Andrew Morgan of NASA, Roscosmos’Alexander Skvortsov and ESA’s Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency pose on 5 July in front of a mural bearing the insignia of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission. (Credit: GCTC–Andrey Shelepin)

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (ESA PR) — The next astronauts to join the International Space Station are on their marks for their launch to Earth’s orbit on 20 July, a date that also commemorates the 50thanniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with Dmitry Rogozin and his team over at Roscosmos. This has been partly due to all the awesome things that are happening elsewhere that keep me busy. And partly due to the fact that Russia’s plans seem to be continuing evolving due to budget cuts to the point to where I’m never quite sure what exactly to take seriously.

The question usually is: yeah, that sounds great, but is there any money for this? I’m lacking in good sources there. And Russian media usually don’t provide enough insights into the program to allow for informed judgments.

With that caveat in mind. TASS has provided another one of its periodic bursts of updates about what Rogozin and company have been up to lately. They are making progress on reusable launch vehicles, a super-heavy booster, a spacecraft that will replace Soyuz, and plans sending cosmonauts and robots to the moon.

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said the state space corporation is once again eyeing the use of converted SS-18 Satan (aka, R-36M2 Voyevoda) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for small satellite launches, TASS reports.

“The matter is now being discussed, first of all with the Defense Ministry, because they are the number one here,” Rogozin said on Saturday, answering to a question about the possibility of converting Voyevoda ICBMs.

He said it would be “wrong to simply scrap” this “beautiful, legendary ICBM.”

“We could easily refit it for projects related to putting small spacecraft to civilian orbits. The matter is being discussed. This tactics should be applied to all combat missiles when they are being removed from combat duty, including Sarmat,” he said.